Regardless of the OS you choose, I'd try putting the damaged drive into a cheap USB drive enclosure and then attempt to access it and retrieve some files. Hiren's Boot Disk version 10.6 on CD should have the disk and file recovery tools you need.
Yes, that often works. Usually the boot record or the OS is corrupt, but the data is fine. I have pulled a lot of data off of damaged hard drives, just mounting them as secondaries.
I doubt I have the budget for even a USB drive enclosure